Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
When I’d almost reached the propped-open side door, movement off to the left caught my eye, and I froze in my tracks. A moment later, a huge rat shot out from underneath the broken furniture. In hot pursuit was a small, gray cat. My first thought was that they seemed pretty evenly matched.
My second thought, as they both darted through the door I’d left ajar, was oh holy shit no!
As my heart began to race, I chased after the animals. I had no idea what I was going to do—I just knew I had to do something. All that stood between them and the wedding reception was a counter, a wooden screen, and me.
Some old, dusty cloches were piled beside the door, and I grabbed one in each hand before slipping inside. The lighting was dim in the small alcove, and it took my eyes a moment to adjust.
Then I spotted the rat. It was on the counter, sitting up on its hind legs and sniffing the air. This was my chance. I lunged at it with the idea of trapping it under the cloche. The cat spotted it too, though. It ended up landing on me and digging its claws into my shoulder as we both hurtled toward the rat. I yelped, the rat shrieked, and the cat hissed as all of us slid over the counter.
I fell against the wooden screen, which toppled over with the loudest bang imaginable. When I leapt to my feet, two hundred pairs of eyes were staring at me. Before I could explain myself, I spotted the rat bounding across the floor. In my panicked state, I truly believed there was only one way to make this right—by catching that big, fat rodent.
A moment later, someone noticed the rat and screamed. That set off a chain reaction of pure pandemonium. Men and women alike leapt onto chairs and tables, which struck me as extremely cartoonish. The cat also leapt onto a tabletop and looked around, because the rat had temporarily vanished.
I finally spotted it scampering up the end of a tablecloth. That particular table was long and narrow. It was festooned with garlands of flowers, which surrounded the towering wedding cake.
Oh no.
I didn’t have time to make a plan, because by now, the rat was running across the table, headed directly for four feet and several thousand dollars’ worth of towering, baked perfection. I couldn’t let the rodent come in contact with that cake, so I rushed to get between them.
At the same time, Brad yelled, “Daniel? What the hell are you doing here?” Then the dumb-ass grabbed my arm, which you should never do when someone is at an all-out sprint.
I swung around in a half-circle, like a wrecking ball on a chain. Momentum carried me into the edge of the table, and after I bumped into it, I gasped and looked up. The cake swayed precariously, like a skyscraper in an earthquake. For a split second, I thought it might possibly remain standing.
Then a mountain of cake and frosting crashed down on Brad, and on Frederick, who’d run up to help apprehend me. It missed me entirely, though.
The whole room froze. Both men stood there confused and blinking, from beneath their blanket of buttercream. The rat stopped moving too, his pointy nose twitching as he sniffed a chunk of cake that had remained on the table. I slammed both cloches over the rodent like a pair of nesting dolls, neatly trapping him.
The cat jumped onto the cake table a moment later, and I picked her up and held her in my arms as I looked around. Every single person in the room was staring at me in various states of shock and disbelief. Many were still crouching on tables and chairs.
Then I locked eyes with Joy, who stood in the middle of the room with her mouth hanging open. I whispered, “I’m so sorry.”
In the next instant, she began absolutely howling with laughter.
She doubled over, then dropped onto the floor and just kept laughing, so hard that she could barely breathe. Felix rushed to her side, and for a moment, he didn’t know what to do. Then he started laughing, too. He sat down beside her, and the two of them grabbed each other in an embrace as their entire bodies shook.
Oh, thank god. If I’d upset Joy by leaving that door open, I never would have forgiven myself.
By now, Brad had scraped some of the cake from his face. He’d also mustered a whole lot of righteous indignation, and he bellowed, “I’m going to have you arrested, you fucking stalker! How dare you show up here and trash my aunt’s wedding?”
I held my ground. “Technically, the rat trashed the wedding. I was trying to catch it, to prevent something like this from happening.” I shifted the cat in my arms and gestured at the frosting-festooned couple.